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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Edible Cupcake Decorations (Using Wilton Candy Clay)

So
it’s just one more excuse. But I swear this time it’s a worthy excuse…

As
of April 19th, I officially became Mrs.
Bleu.

with the best man, Tsavo, in the background

We
had a terrific ceremony at the Fort Worth Zoo. A little bit flash mob. A little
bit geeky. And a whole lot of love.

But
the real star of any family shindig is always the food. We’re pretty big fans
of eating around here. Of course we took our family to eat dinner.

However,
weddings are really about the cake. Don’t get me wrong—the bride and groom are
pretty important. But if you’re celebrating with your friends, you already know
they love each other… So don’t lie, you’re there for the cake.

Naturally,
I made our cakes. Nothing fancy, just some vanilla cakes with vanilla
buttercream and chocolate cakes with dark chocolate frosting. What made them fancy enough for our family
were the decorations.

My
aunt brought me this Rycraft Cookie Stamp
after she learned about us getting married in the zoo. We knew we were
doing the ceremony in front of the lion exhibit. I knew we would be doing
cupcakes (not cookies), but I also knew I just had to find a way to use it.

I
started hunting for some way to make a cupcake topper and I wanted it to be
completely edible. I thought about just making some cookies, but I’m really not
a cookie maker. I always burn them or make them tasteless. I ended up looking
for tips on using gum paste and fondant, thinking that I could just buy a tub
of the stuff and make it work.

Have
you eaten any of those tubs of fondant? They taste like… Well, they taste like
nothing. I’m not a fan. But everyone uses fondant. (I know that homemade
marshmallow fondant is delicious, but I’m too lazy to make it.)

WiltonCandy Clay is seriously easy to
make. Like two ingredients and a microwave easy. It works like modeling chocolate
(at least that’s how it’s described). You mix it up, let it set, and then roll
it/mold it how you want. The hard part is picking a color of Candy Melts to
use.

We
didn’t really set a color scheme for our wedding. I wore teal. I made gold,
grey and ivory flowers. I used dark coral for an accent. Do they even make
candy melts in those colors? Did I really need five shades of medallions? I
obsessed over the color to use for ages. And when I finally decided what colors
to use, we headed to the store. Then I found these…

I
actually used about a tablespoon less corn syrup than the recipe calls for. I
was trying to make sure that it was going to produce a firm enough ball of
chocolate. I probably could have used even less. After letting the chocolate
set overnight, I portioned it into 10 gram balls. (I was being a bit of a
perfectionist.) Using my seasoned Rycraft cookie stamp (dusted in a bit of
cornstarch), I simply pressed my way to chocolate medallion bliss.

I
allowed the medallions to sit in a chilled box until right before serving. Even
though it was chilly for most of the day, I was afraid the buttercream might
make them sweat or they would get too soft. I have no clue if this really
happens; I only think it might have happened.

The
lions were a big hit. We shared them with family at the restaurant and later
with friends at a bar. Everyone loved them.